By Judie Brown
In a 2015 sermon, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said: “Today the idea of truth and that of intolerance are almost completely fused, and so we no longer dare to believe in the truth or to speak of the truth.”
One would think the Holy Father was speaking about the culture of death! We see this every day with so many who promote this skewed view and who misguide the ignorant in ways once thought to be unimaginable.
An example of this is a minister in Maine who recently blessed a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in God’s name! The Rev. Marvin Ellison said: “We thank God for Planned Parenthood and for the amazing work you do, day in and day out, with passion, courage, wisdom and grace.” Clearly Ellison has chosen to speak of a god that no Christian would recognize. My sense is that he was speaking of the pagan god Baal, given Baal’s biblical history of thirsting after the blood of the innocent.
Make no mistake: There is no truth in what Ellison is preaching.
We see a further example of someone misguiding others from New York Times health columnist Jane Brody, who quotes the pro-euthanasia End of Life Choices New York’s Dr. Judith Schwarz. Schwarz spoke about dementia patients and stated: “While you retain decision-making capacity . . . you have every right to decide that you would want to stop all life-prolonging measures, including food and fluid, when they are no longer wanted and can do no good.” However, what if the Alzheimer’s patient is not dying but is unable to communicate about the desire for food and drink because of his disease?
Wesley J. Smith asked the same question and points out that “No one should have the right—no matter how scared of dementia they may be—to compel others to starve them to death.” He continues: “It is a sign of our times that acts and omissions that only a few years ago would have epitomized elder abuse, now receive the full-court bioethical press in the Establishment ‘paper of record.’”
There is no truth in this New York Times opinion article, nor is there truth in the propaganda promoted by End of Life Choices.
Finally, we see the feminist writer Leni Zumas whose latest book entitled Red Clocks imagines, according to Atlantic magazine, “America without abortion.” The book is fiction, of course, but as the review summarizes: “In Red Clocks, women simply wake up one day to find that a president they didn’t vote for—a man with a history of extreme rhetoric and legislation on reproductive issues—has proposed a Personhood Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which a majority of states then vote to ratify.”
The main problem with such books, fiction or not, is that the beginning premise is not that the pregnant female is actually an expectant mother, but rather that abortion is a sacred right that women must have at all costs.
The Atlantic review continues: “What this all builds into is a thoughtful, complicated picture of womanhood—and a fierce argument for individual choice.”
There is no truth in the review or in the book.
It would serve pro-life people well to recall the words of Pope Benedict XVI often, for his sermon delivers the inspiration we need:
Today the idea of truth and that of intolerance are almost completely fused, and so we no longer dare to believe in the truth or to speak of the truth. It seems to be far away, it seems something better not to refer to. No one can say: I have the truth—this is the objection raised—and, rightly so, no one can have the truth. It is the truth that possesses us, it is a living thing! We do not possess it but are held by it. Only if we allow ourselves to be guided and moved by the truth, do we remain in it. Only if we are, with it and in it, pilgrims of truth, then it is in us and for us. I think that we need to learn anew about “not-having-the-truth.” Just as no one can say: I have children—they are not our possession, they are a gift, and as a gift from God, they are given to us as a responsibility—so we cannot say: I have the truth, but the truth came to us and impels us. We must learn to be moved and led by it. And then it will shine again: if the truth itself leads us and penetrates us.
Let us pray fervently that we cherish this gift each and every day. Let us pray for the misguided souls who seek to lead others astray. And let us pray that people begin to see the beauty in motherhood and in each and every child created.
